0 ARTS .The Michigan Daily Monday, April 6, 1992 Page 5 va ^ x Q~e 9 R~e3I Ps, ,.>4 yx{ ar, 5 M SU poet discairis heump for sex, ..-,M I f f,,A F by Nick Arvin Diane Wakoski is a full professor at MSU who has been publishing po- etry for thirty years now. During those years she has displayed a re- markable ability to pull very differ- ent ideas and concepts together in original, believable ways. For example, in the fine tradition of Hash Bash one of Wakoski's earl- iest poems is titled "George Wa- shington Writes Home About Har- vesting His Hemp." "And so you make special plans to be there / when the hemp is har- vested: / your dreams take the form of women / lying down, taking off their clothes / on American flags, / serving you in the name of your country ..." With age and wisdom, Wakoski's poetry has left hemp, but not sex, behind. After completing more than three dozen volumes of poetry, she has moved on to topics like quantum physics, Las Vegas, Tom Cruise, mythology and sex - key elements woven into the poetry of Wakoski' s latest book, Medea the Sorceress. Wakoski will read today from Medea the Sorceress - the first book of a multi-volume work titled The Archeology of Movies and Books - and from the volume of poetry she is currently working on, Jason the Sailor. "When people read my poetry I want them to get very interested in my mind and imagination ... to get totally involved with the stories and characters of my imagination," Wa- koski said. "And hopefully when they're done, they will understand the world better." In fact, it's easy to get "totally involved" in Wakoski's poetry, be- cause her form of verse is so per- sonal. "In my poetry I draw on history and my life," Wakoski explained. She's demonstrated this in "City of Lights (Las Vegas)" from Medea the Sorceress. "Sitting at the blackjack table, I, wear my denim jacket / and blue jeans. Nobody, except one blackjack I dealer / notices I have a light I around my head, and he sees it I through sharp lower class eyes: 'You're I a nun,' he says. I smile and say, 'No, J the next thing to it."' Wakoski' s poetry, like, this ex- cerpt, very often addresses or speaks from very personal events. In Medea the Sorceress Wakoski also liberally sprinkles letters which, similar to a poet's comments between poems at a reading, help explain the poems and the events leading to them. This device makes the poetry even more accessible to the reader. "My poetry is about how imagi- nation transforms drabness into a joy. The subject of beauty is very, important to me," Wakoski said, hit- ting on an important part of poetry and her own poems. Wakoski ex- plores the discovery of beauty in the ordinary, finding new and refreshing ground, as she does in "The Silver Surfer on the Desert." "Greasewood, blackbrush, sage, and / tarbrush, the scrub of Sonoran or Mojave galaxies / scrapes past your Red Wing boots. Walking / this land, or skimming past it / in a blue silver car, you / never know who is traveling with you." Wakoski has said that a "poety reading provides instant access to the poet and the poetry." DIANE WAKOSKI will read from her poetry at 4 p.m. today in .the Rackham Amphitheatre. Admission is free.p Diane Wakoski muses, "What's the deal? Why'd I ever let them take my picture like this? Who cares as long as I've got this pile of $50 chips." A picture p rf ct Pearl..ealat. .ft. Andrew's Hall . April 3,1"92:<:::::: :.;..: Hey, hey, my, my. Roeck'n' roll will never dlie.:At least not as long as bands like Pearl Jam keep plugging into their Marshalls. On Friday night, St. Andrew's Hall was converted into a bona fide rock 'n' roll church, as those five earth brothers from: Seattle once again proved that they are truly the sonic saviors. Blazing through songs from their godlike debut album, Ten, Pearl Jam mesmerized the sold-out crowd.